COMBICHRIST
Making Monsters
METROPOLIS
GENRE: INDUSTRIAL
Combichrist’s Andy LaPlegua wasn’t talking about vampires, zombies or werewolves when he named his band’s fifth album Making Monsters. Instead the Norwegian EBM pioneer is talking/screaming about human monsters – the kind that lie, cheat, steal and deceive. Like his previous four records, LaPlegua has designed Making Monsters as an industrial dance floor grenade, set to explode with propulsive beats, lusty lyrics and sinister synths. First single “Never Surrender” is a dystopic dance club anthem fuelled by hate and self-disgust. Similarly danceable but doom-laden are the aggressively hedonistic and jarring “Just Like Me” and the misogynistic “Forgotten” (“You’re such a fucking slut”). Slower tracks like the epic instrumental “Fuck Machine” and the icy “Through These Eyes of Pain” provide some respite from the musical misanthropy of “Throat Full of Glass” and “They,” but ultimately Combichrist records are about the satisfaction of lust and instinct while you dance yourself to death. Consider this music to dance to as your soul dies.
1/2
Making Monsters is available digitally starting Aug. 31 and will be in stores Sept. 28.
